Arizona Murder-Suicide Dad Had a Brain Tumor

File photo. Comstock/Thinkstock(TEMPE, Ariz.) — Friends of an Arizona family that perished in a fiery murder-suicide said the father’s brain tumor may have led him to kill his family, something completely out of character for a man who was remembered as “one of the nicest guys.”

Tempe Police are remaining tight-lipped about the circumstances that led James Butwin, 47, to allegedly kill his wife, Yafit, 40; and three children Malissa, 16; Daniel, 14; and Matthew, 7.

Yael Ozair, 15, who was friends with Daniel and Malissa and knew the family, said she remembered hearing stories that the father was recently “speaking jibberish” and having trouble fighting a brain tumor.

“This whole thing is illness. I know it’s not God,” Ozair said. “The family is too good for this to be true.”

Butwin was battling a brain tumor and in the middle of a divorce that was putting the normal strain of a separation on the entire family.

“Daniel said, ‘It’s really hard at my house right now because my parents are getting a divorce and they’re always fighting,'” Ozair told ABC News.

The charred bodies were discovered on Saturday in a burnt SUV in the Arizona desert. The case gained national attention when Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu claimed the bodies were related to Mexican drug trafficking and used the case to criticize the Obama administration’s border-security actions.

Authorities found evidence inside the Butwin family’s home that leads them to believe it could be a murder-suicide, said Sgt. Jeff Glover of the Tempe Police Department. He declined to say what police found inside the home.

The family was reported missing by a friend who received a concerning note from James Butwin detailing how to run his real estate business.